Trailblazing Welsh chocolate company receives big boost

A TREHARRIS-based entrepreneur and their business have been awarded £10,000 to support future growth plans and ambitions.

Veronique Mbida and her business Bantu Chocolate have been given the grant funding by the entrepreneurship charity Hatch Enterprise in partnership with NatWest.

The trailblazing company is a bean-to-bar craft chocolate and cocoa pulp juice maker specialising in single origin cocoa products. Bantu is dedicated to turning a broken system into a fair, sustainable and modern supply chain.

Veronique Mbida, founder of Bantu Chocolate, said: “Receiving this grant is a significant milestone for Bantu Chocolate and a valuable opportunity to invest in our future growth.

“At Bantu Chocolate our unique ownership of a cocoa farm allows us to grow our own beans and craft chocolate from start to finish, ensuring a stable supply of high-quality cocoa and by-products.

“By investing in website improvements, visual content, and new seasonal products, we aim to reach more customers and better showcase our distinctive, farm-to-table chocolates and cocoa pulp-based beverages.”

Bantu was founded with these guiding principles:

Fairness
Even with certifications like fair trade, farmers are not paid a living wage for their work, while large corporations take home the vast majority of profits. to combat this, we go above and beyond to pay our collaborators a living wage that is six times more than the commodity price and three times the fair-trade price.

Heritage
A healthy environment is all of our birthright, but right now, it is under threat with corporations pushing intensive agriculture. with a recognition that we will only thrive if the earth does too, we grow our cocoa using practices like regenerative agriculture and other traditional farming techniques to preserve the land’s vitality for future generations.

Culture
Culture and agriculture are inseparable. as communities’ traditional growing practices are eroded by industrial players, the culture begins to erode as well. we grow in ways that preserve cultural traditions, strengthening the communities we work with in the process.

Bantu’s mission statement
We believe that the modern supply chain is fundamentally exploitative of african cocoa farmers. so we have come in to reimagine the entire system, transforming it into one that is built on fair exchange and radical empowerment.

For more about Bantu Chocolate visit: https://bantuchocolate.com/ ​​ ​​

To shop the Bantu Chocolates range visit: https://bantuchocolate.com/shop/